"Club Penton" - Ask questions to Hollywood insider "Penton-Man"

[Tok]

Originally Posted by Esox50

What was really sad was anyone who had paid attention to a select few insiders here (like Max), PLUS the leak from the guy at Lionsgate in the Fall of 07 (remember the whole, "Word is Warner is coming over to our side" fiasco), could "reasonably" conclude that Warner was leaning to going Blu in January 2008. Of course, "reasonable" is not a word I would use to describe a good majority of HD DVD'ers. I think by November of 2007, a few of us here were 95% sure WB was going Blu. From there, it was pure entertainment watching some people continue to live in their own little worlds missing the clues...

But whatever guys. It's been over for 18months. Who cares. Let the idiots be idiots. We won! The better product won!

The biggest clue was right in front of our faces... Nickerson and his team being forced out of Warner Home Video at about the time of the Paramount deal. Nickerson and his team were the biggest HD DVD proponents at a
'so-called' neutral studio. The neutrality was being forced on them from a higher position of power within the company. The rumor is that Nickerson tried to work an 'exclusive deal' with Toshiba without the knowledge of his higher ups about the time of the Paramount deal. If true, it looks like trying to go around his bosses got him canned.

I think Nickerson was being loyal to DVD-champion Warren Lieberfarb who was with Warner during the early DVD experiment and the Toshiba HD DVD group at the time of the format war.

[Tok]

Originally Posted by SquidPuppet

$65.00 now at Amazon.

And if Warner overestimates demand, I am sure Amazon will be selling these for under $30 in a year. Still after getting Adv of Robin Hood for under $12 and The Searchers for $8. I am not going to budge until I can get the discs only for under $20.

[Esox50]

Originally Posted by CraigW

The biggest clue was right in front of our faces... Nickerson and his team being forced out of Warner Home Video at about the time of the Paramount deal. Nickerson and his team were the biggest HD DVD proponents at a
'so-called' neutral studio. The neutrality was being forced on them from a higher position of power within the company. The rumor is that Nickerson tried to work an 'exclusive deal' with Toshiba without the knowledge of his higher ups about the time of the Paramount deal. If true, it looks like trying to go around his bosses got him canned.

Yep, that was another one. Of course, broke here on this site first I believe.

[SquidPuppet]

Originally Posted by CraigW

And Warner overestimates demand, I am sure Amazon will be selling these for under $30 in a year. Still after getting Adv of Robin Hood for under $12 and The Searchers for $8. I am not going to budge until I can get the discs only for under $20.

I wonder, by how much? I also wonder how many "no frills" copies would have flown off the shelves, had they been offered.

[Doctorossi]

Originally Posted by CraigW

The biggest clue was right in front of our faces... Nickerson and his team being forced out of Warner Home Video at about the time of the Paramount deal.

Even a couple months before Nickerson was pushed out, the rumblings were getting pretty loud. I would definitely say that anyone who was surprised by the time of Warner's move was either not paying attention, not very adept at exercising modern research methods or some combination of the two.

[Doctorossi]

Originally Posted by CraigW

And if Warner overestimates demand, I am sure Amazon will be selling these for under $30 in a year.

Which is why I really hope those sets have standard cases inside. If I can get them for an earthbound price, I can just donate the SHELF-CHAMPION and his little trinket friends to a thrift store.

[Tok]

Originally Posted by Doctorossi

Even a couple months before Nickerson was pushed out, the rumblings were getting pretty loud. I would definitely say that anyone who was surprised by the time of Warner's move was either not paying attention, not very adept at exercising modern research methods or some combination of the two.

Both sides were in full swing trying to reason why their side would be Warners choice. I think any reasonable person could have seen that Blu was the more logical choice. The HD DVD camp was in full pep talk mode but they had a few pluses with the fact that their hardware had come down in price quickly. But I think we all know that Toshiba never planned on HD DVD going from a $500 price point to a $99 one day special in about eighteen months. But by that point with all the hype about the $99 price tag most consumers slightly interested were not going to buy unless it hit near that point again. In the end, Toshiba helped slash their own throat trying to combat the competition on price alone.

[Doctorossi]

Originally Posted by CraigW

they had a few pluses with the fact that there hardware had come down in price quickly

That was a plus and a minus. It destroyed any possibility of interest from any other non-Chinese CEs and also sniffed of desperation/DOA product to the consumer.

[Tok]

Originally Posted by Doctorossi

That was a plus and a minus. It destroyed any possibility of interest from any other non-Chinese CEs and also sniffed of desperation/DOA product to the consumer.

Agreed. Like I said they slashed their own throat.

[Slec]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

Thank you for noticing and mentioning, as compliments are always welcomed.
And how did you like the Blu-ray of Ghostbusters itself ?

Hopefully, as much as these folks did ……….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8IGfkSeRv4

And, like I posted a week or so back, the Blu-ray edition was based on a new HD master , not the master used for the 2005 DVD version, so no expense was spared.

Just wanted to reiterate the bolded above, as I've seen a review or two saying otherwise. Thanks Penton!

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by merrick97

Penton,

Im sure this has been answered but what was the reason that Sony decided to hold off on releasing Ghostbusters 2 as well. I may be in the minority but I actually enjoyed the 2nd one more.

The industry likes to do and take advantage of *tie-ins*, i.e. The Da Vinci Code/ Angels and Demons.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by J6P

.....To get us back on topic (), I'm also old enough to remember when GIANTS fought it out on two wheels: Lawson, Roberts, Mamola, Sheene. But my idol was Freddie Spencer. In college I was all about GP500, Honda and "Fast Freddie". If going without food would have been enough to buy his replica helmet I probably would have, but even that wouldn't have been enough back then.

For cripes sakes, another one comes out of the lurker pits!
I’ve really got to watch the Battle of Barcelona tomorrow evening so that all you crotch rocketeers can go at it in unison with the last points race musings.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by CraigW

I seem to remember it being Phase Hydra also. And the AVS redants were quick to label any pro-BD poster as being part of it. They could never wrap their little minds around the fact that someone might actually prefer BD......

Sorry but I prefer my HD to actually be 'HD' rather than 'HD-in-name-only'

You guys have got me all riled up now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MO-pgEfdXTQ

[P@t_Mtl]

Originally Posted by CraigW

I can agree with you on that. I don't like how Warner is attempting to price gouge Blu consumers by forcing them to purchase these 'collector sets' that are basically composed of extras that cost pennies to produce.

I want Casablanca and Oz as much as anyother collector, but I am not being forced to buy something I dont want cluttering my shelfs. At least with the Limited Edition HP 1-5 boxset you get that for under $100 and that came with 5 movies. I am not buying a collector set for $50 that has one movie. I refuse to pay LD niche-like prices on mainstream product.

Oz is coming in a 2 disc set right? I heard this the right way? I hope it's not just in that stupid box set like Casablanca, which is why I still haven't bought it.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by sharkshark

Adorable! There's the tone of conversation I was referring to!

See above

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by Slec

Just wanted to reiterate the bolded above, as I've seen a review or two saying otherwise. Thanks Penton!

Well, I think I should know, as I also know what d*mn building on the Sony lot the Blu-ray edition was encoded/authored in.

[Monkey]

Originally Posted by sharkshark

Adorable! There's the tone of conversation I was referring to!

...

In all the walls of text you've typed the last few days trying to convince us that the blu-ray side was just as guilty as HD DVD during the war, you simply could have saved a ton of space/bandwidth and made quick points like Grubert did ...... that is if there was any merit to your claims.... we still seem to be missing any actual facts... again Grubert had a good template with actual factual examples, you could have followed his style if there was any validity to the idea you've been pushing FYI, your tone has equally been there, just lacking substance to back it up so far.

edit: This isn't meant as an attack.. Just an observation. Short version, people making the claims about the tactics from the HD DVD camp, actually used facts based on actual quotes (granted it was easy to do when you have people like Amir M. in the HD DVD camp with a very active keyboard)

[Bullseye]

Penton not sure if you ever attended the Isle of Man TTs but for any fan of the two wheelers this is a must. I was lucky enough to see the great Joey Dunlop in action before his tragic death.

[BluDomain]

Originally Posted by Monkey

In all the walls of text you've typed the last few days trying to convince us that the blu-ray side was just as guilty as HD DVD during the war.....

That's called the "Fog Factor" or "Fog Index" generally only used in
government publications. Which invite a quick scroll and doesn't serve
as communication. We all owe Alan thanks for his take so that
the rest can skim as fast as our dexterity with a mouse wheel allows.

http://www.fogfactor.com/
"The 'fog factor' is a writer's yardstick to measure the acceptability of written work. It measures tautology, padded syllables, sentence length, multi-syllable words and other factors as a guide to meaningful writing. Simply put, it measures how easy and pleasant it is to read your message.

Briefly, here's how to calculate the fog factor or fog index:

A. Count the total number of words
B. Count the total number of sentences
C. Count the number of 3-syllable or more words
D. Divide A by B to get average sentence length
E. Divide C by A to get the percentage of big (3-syllable) words
F. Add D and E
G. Multiple F by 0.4

The result shows the fog factor or fog index. The ideal range is between 7 and 9. A fog factor above 11 indicates the writing is too heavy for most people to accept. As far as possible we try to achieve a range of between 7 and 9 when editing. "

[mikey p]

Originally Posted by BluDomain

That's called the "Fog Factor" or "Fog Index" generally only used in government publications. "

Thanks, I'm ROFLOL